Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think a 13 year old boy shouldn't use the ladies loo?

813 replies

NameChangeLulu · 15/11/2017 19:11

NC for this. Recently I was in a situation where a group of people I was in went to a service station. A boy of 13 was told by his mother to come into the ladies with her rather than use the gents as it was safer.

AIBU to think that’s not OK?

OP posts:
BarbarianMum · 17/11/2017 11:51

I don't have a daughter. If I did of course she could use open plan unisex toilets. I wouldn't use an enclosed unisex toilet area so of course I wouldnt send her into one.

valuerangeweetabixandmilk · 17/11/2017 12:03

They are more likely to be accused of stuff they didnt do the whole system is rigged up against men. Every time alone with a girl/woman is a potential accusation. If the have sex at 14 with a girl who is 14- they are rapists. They have to prove consent at every turn. Ok I know you will say false rape claims are few-they are-but not all and in any situation as such my daughter would be believed but not my son. It is frightening.
The point of your post is to suggest girls are at risk by lads using their toilets
Proves the reason to be concerned when they are viewed as potential dangers before they are even men.

On another not when i was on the postnatal ward men were allowed behond curtains 24 7. I felt unsafe with MEN but this was ironically minimised by the women for whom it was necessary to have men in womens safe space despite the escalation of DV in pregnancy.

Cant have it both ways.

BertrandRussell · 17/11/2017 12:03

"Why is it OK for our son's to be put in dangerous situations but not our daughters?"

It's not. We're talking about 13 year old boys going into the men's loo, not being sent to Afghanistan.

BarbarianMum · 17/11/2017 12:06

《If they have sex with a girl of 14 when they are 14 then they are rapists》

You know that's not true right? Or possibly not seeing the amount of paranoid bullshit you're spouting. Hmm

BertrandRussell · 17/11/2017 12:07

"The point of your post is to suggest girls are at risk by lads using their toilets"

No. I don't think they will be be at risk at all. I think they will be made uncomfortable. And I think that they have a right to women only to attend to their physical needs, just as boys have a right to men only space.

Gileswithachainsaw · 17/11/2017 12:08

Every time alone with a girl/woman is a potential accusation. If the have sex at 14 with a girl who is 14- they are rapists. They have to prove consent at every turn. Ok I know you will say false rape claims are few-they are-but not all and in any situation as such my daughter would be believed but not my son

Are you fucking kidding me.

You know the rates of prosecution are k ow right?

You know tag being good at sport is enough to get you off a prison sentence whatever you do to yoir poor victims.

You know every single time a girl is raped and the article posted online the first few comments will be "what was she doing there at that time if night"

How posters to warn women of he dangers of rape put the responsibility of he rape one the victims and these are usually designed by the sodding police or councils.

Girls as young as six are being harassed in schools
Poor men and boys Hmm

PumpkinSquash · 17/11/2017 12:08

Who are all these people who are mums to boys who willingly go to the ladies with them?
I have two boys, 10 and 14 and no way would either of them ever agree to go into the ladies toilets with me!
13 is ridiculous (barring special needs of course)to still make them go to the toilet with mummy.
What do they do when they're out with their mates and mum isn't around? Plus, have you seen the size of some 13 year olds? They're more like grown adults.
Smaller kids, primary school aged ones, yes, I can see your point. 13 year olds are grown teenagers taking their options for GSCEs though!

BertrandRussell · 17/11/2017 12:09

"If the have sex at 14 with a girl who is 14- they are rapists. They have to prove consent at every turn. Ok I know you will say false rape claims are few-they are-but not all and in any situation as such my daughter would be believed but not my son. It is frightening."

3 factual inaccuracies in one 4 line paragraph.

valuerangeweetabixandmilk · 17/11/2017 12:11

Bloody hell barbarian calm down dear
Yes bertrand everybody has the right to be comfortable
Im not paranoid just mindful. Extreme reactions give weight to my point. Perhaps you need to channel your anger into a focus which is not 13 year old boys but the ways we can educate both boys and girls to be confortable with each other

valuerangeweetabixandmilk · 17/11/2017 12:14

Bertrand if you day so
Mother of girls only are you?ï

Gileswithachainsaw · 17/11/2017 12:21

Perhaps you need to channel your anger into a focus which is not 13 year old boys but the ways we can educate both boys and girls to be confortable with each other

They all start off perfectly comfortable witg eachother. The share loos and spaces happily at pre school then on primary school for the first few yrs mixed parties mixed friendship groups. Girls don't wake up one day and decide boys are the enemy.

And if it was the girls behaviour that changes so much he boys want nothing to do with them then why are they usually the ones who are harassing them. Why are girls avoiding biys rather than biys avoiding the girls.

What exactly is it the girls j5eed to change in order to be "comfortable"

Mum23Monsters · 17/11/2017 12:22

This issue for me isn't really about age or gender, the ladies whose daughter was harassed in a changing room by a teenager wasn't scared because he was a boy or even because he was 13/14, she was scared because he was being an asshole and the mother was being one as well by just writing it off as "oh he has ASD" without trying to explain to him that in a shared space he had to respect certain rules.

The truth is we should all be able to use facilities like toilets, changing rooms etc without fear of threatening behaviour or being intimidated but we can't because of some people's actions and behaviour, it's not gender specific some women are just as vile as some men. It's also a simple fact that whatever you do it will offend someone. I have lots of health issues including incontinence. My kids are 15, 8 and 6, two have documented complex special needs and incontinence issues, the third is still regularly put into pull ups if we are going to be out for a while, because when she needs to go she needs to go NOW and she struggles with undressing, cleaning herself or remembering it's not really appropriate to walk out of a public toilet with your knickers around your ankles. Sometimes they aren't there for their reasons they are there for mine, they are parked by a wall out of the way, threatened with some ridiculous punishment if they mess around where I can hear they are safe and not wandering into something dangerous because I need to clean up. They don't have a choice and neither do I because even though I am not a single parent I am usually forced to be out alone with them due to husbands work hours.

We have been scowled at, sworn at and tutted at for using the men's both when I have stood outside waiting for the middle one or when sending the big one with the middle one when neither one can undress or clean themselves properly. We have had the same for using the women's with the 8 year old, although on one memorable visit someone told me I shouldn't be in the cubicle with my daughter because it was "creepy" she was 3 or 4 at the time, I didn't feel like explaining it was me that needed the toilet not her and I could hardly let her roam free. The other one people are odd about is standing outside the cubicle door holding it shut from the outside for some reason it's deemed "lurking" rather than stopping my monster locking themselves in and being able to help them maintain some decency while they go through yet another "I Can Do It Myself" phase when they can't. We have less issues with using the baby changing room although there have still been many and very few of them have an actual toilet inside. As for the disabled toilet it's a different ball game because people assume we are being lazy/thoughtless and I can't actually wear a sign around my neck saying "I HAVE A RADAR KEY AND I NEED THE HANDRAILS" or explain that actually my 8 year old has shit up his back and I need the space to clean and change him.

Right now my best solution is to try my best and be mindful of everyone's various feelings and just keep the trips to whatever toilet we need to use to as quickly as possible and feeling like I will probably spend my whole life apologising for neither them nor me being "normal" We are not trying to embarass anyone, intimidate anyone, just use the facilities, clean up and go about our business.

BertrandRussell · 17/11/2017 12:24

"Bertrand if you day so
Mother of girls only are you?ï"

Not just me saying so. It's just fact.

And no, I have a boy.

valuerangeweetabixandmilk · 17/11/2017 12:24

^ their mums opinions for one
Obviously boys are a risk the minute puberty starts
Ffs

Gileswithachainsaw · 17/11/2017 12:26

So if it's all nonsense we fill our daughters head with why won't you send your kid into the men's with the teenage boys then?

valuerangeweetabixandmilk · 17/11/2017 12:28

I wouldnt send either into toilets of the opposite sex as thats te rules
I wouldnt feel at risk with boy in femae loos
Doesnt mean id do it myself

YetAnotherSpartacus · 17/11/2017 12:36

At 13 he should be using the toilet of his sex SEN or not. Full stop.

ArcheryAnnie · 17/11/2017 12:36

They are more likely to be accused of stuff they didnt do the whole system is rigged up against men.

Most rapists get away with it. Even men who are convicted of rape often don't even lose their reputations, never mind their liberty. The system is overwhelmingly rigged up against women, and if you believe otherwise, you are mistaken and not in possession of the full facts.

I have a son, btw, valuerange. And I agree with you that men shouldn't be given 24/7 access in postnatal wards.

BertrandRussell · 17/11/2017 12:42

"^ their mums opinions for one
Obviously boys are a risk the minute puberty starts
Ffs"

You really are not paying attention to what other people are saying, are you?

And there is something rather ironic about getting upset about the "demonization" of men and boys while simultaneously insisting that boys are at risk in men's loos............

G

StatelessPrincess · 17/11/2017 12:43

I wear hijab and will sometimes remove my scarf and redo it in front of the mirror in a public toilet if I'm out and it's slipped or something. Lots of Muslim women do the same. Why should we have to worry about teenage boys or men seeing us in a space that is designated for women Hmm 13 is way too old to be in the womens toilets and his mother should consider the feelings of other women instead of infantilising her son.

BertrandRussell · 17/11/2017 12:44

"And I agree with you that men shouldn't be given 24/7 access in postnatal wards."

I agree with this too.

ArcheryAnnie · 17/11/2017 12:48

Obviously boys are a risk the minute puberty starts

Some boys are a risk, just as some men are. Not all boys, not all men - but enough for it to be a horrendous problem. Girls experience astonishing levels of harrassment at primary school, never mind secondary school. This isn't some awful lie I am conjuring up out of whole cloth - there's reports on it and everything. As horrific as it is to contemplate, some very young boys are indeed a risk. And if a strange boy - including a man-sized teenager - is in a place designated for women-only, it's reasonable for girls to be very suspicious and fearful as to why they are there.

BaronessEllaSaturday · 17/11/2017 12:52

the whole system is rigged up against men.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry

Lethaldrizzle · 17/11/2017 12:58

As the mother of both sexes I have never been afraid to send a boy into men's loos. What poppycock! ('Scuse pun!)

ArcheryAnnie · 17/11/2017 12:58

Mum23Monsters for what it's worth, cases like yours are exactly why I don't judge people who use the accessible loos when it isn't immediately obvious to strangers. You shouldn't have to justify yourself. Flowers

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.